During halftime, a smiling Valero Alamo Bowl head Derrick Fox joked about the requirements for teams playing in the event.

“We have them check a box, ‘Defense Optional,'” he said.

For the Washington and Baylor defenses on Thursday night at the Alamodome, it was so funny it hurt.

In Baylor's 67-56 victory that finished just shy of midnight, the teams combined to yield 1,397 yards, averaging 8.8 yards a snap, in smashing national and Alamo Bowl records for scoring and yardage.

In what evolved almost immediately into a seeming preview of the Arena Football League, which debuts in San Antonio in the spring, the teams exchanged the lead five times before Baylor's Terrance Ganaway broke loose for the go-ahead 4-yard TD plunge with 8:15 left. Ganaway added an exclamation point with a 43-yard scoring run with 2:28 to go.

“I'm just disappointed at the number of big plays that occurred,” Washington coach Steve Sarkisian said shortly afterward. “The breakdowns that occurred in the second half, we just gave up big plays.”

Indeed, the Bears, who came in averaging 571 yards per game and were facing one of the nation's poorest defenses statistically, battered the Huskies for 13 plays of 10 or more yards in the second half. On three of the first five snaps of the third quarter, Baylor went 23 or more yards.

That was the opening salvo in a 29-point third quarter that pulled Baylor back to a 53-49 deficit after trailing 42-24 only a minute after intermission.

“We knew coming in that it was not just Robert Griffin, but that entire offensive football team,” Sarkisian said.

On the night, Baylor totaled a school-record 777 yards, averaging 9.1 yards a snap. Griffin, the flashy Heisman Trophy winner, had 369 yards total offense, including 295 passing. Surprisingly, the junior had only one TD passing — an 11-yard toss to Kendall Wright on the inaugural drive.

Baylor tacked on nine followup scores, including five from Ganaway. The 240-pound senior, named the game's MVP, totaled 200 yards on 21 carries.

After the game, Griffin drew laughs when he noted that when the team first walked into the Alamodome for a walk-through this week, the scoreboard read, 72-72.

“We said, ‘No way,'” Griffin said. “It almost turned out that way.”

Baylor needed every yard, and every break. Washington, thanks to a 28-point, 249-yard second quarter, held a 35-24 halftime lead and scored a minute into the third quarter.

“We just needed to score and needed to score fast and give our defense a boost,” said Washington quarterback Keith Price.

In the pinball nature of the game, the biggest defensive moment came with 3:20 remaining when Baylor forced a fourth-down incompletion at its 39-yard line, up 59-56.

Three snaps later, Ganaway stampeded for the final score.

“That was crazy, it really was,” Baylor coach Art Briles said. “I don't think you can look at it and say the defenses weren't playing well. It was just the ebb and flow of the game.”